What is Britains perspective on the American Revolution? I heard that they dont really teach about it in their schools like we do in the U.S.. It makes sense since they have longer history than we do and it was more impactful for us than them. I was just wondering what the differences are between what the U.S. says that happened and what the British say happened. Resources would be great to reference too if you know of any.
One brilliant writer Soame Jenyns attacks the various arguments of those who opposed the Stamp Act. Jenyns argues that the three arguments of consenting to taxation are false. The radicals claimed that they cannot be taxed without consent of themselves, the consent of his representative, or consent of the majority of the representatives he has elected. Jenyns refutes all of these arguments with actual evidence, He also asks the million dollar question “Are they only Englishmen, when they sollict for Protection, but not Englishmen, when Taxes are required to enable this Country to protect them?” Jenyns also through logical syllogism brings the logical reasoning of the radical colonists to its conclusion. If taxes are not equal that means they are not just which means that no power can impose them which means that there can be no taxation at all. Jenyns later highlights the eloquent radicalism of the revolutionary eliute when he states “I have lately seen so many Specimens of the great Powers of Speech, of which these American Gentlemen are possessed, that I should be much afraid, that the sudden Importation of so much eloquence at once, would greatly endanger the Safety and Government of this Country.” Showcasing the need to understand different costs, he cleverly surmises “it will be much cheaper for us to pay their Army, than their Orators.”
John Hancock, the one with the largest signature on “The Declaration of Independence” was a smuggler and the wealthiest man in the colonies. As you come to look at the evidence you realize that the pamphlets are not written by farmers and tradesmen or reflective of the common will but reflective of a narrow radical revolutionary elite manipulating the masses through deceit and lies. The signers of the Declaration of Independence included merchants, landowners, lawyers, judges, and slaveholders.
. I thought that Tories would have used Hobbes, Filmer, Sybthorpe, Mandeville, Mainwaring, Wedderburn speeches, and the statutes of King Henry VIII like a satirist suggested in that era. Instead they used Enlightenment figures in their arguments.
According to some scholars, only 40% to 45% of colonists supported the rebellion. 20% to 25% were Loyalists. This meant that 35% to 40% were neutral.
Sources: Soame Jenyns, The Objection to the Taxation of our American Colonies, by the Legislature of Great Britain, Briefly Consider’d. (London: J. Wilkie, 1765), 9-18.
United States Declaration of Independence.
Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992).